LEAGUE MEMBERS SPEAK AT BCC BUDGET MEETING TO SUPPORT CONSERVATION COLLIER
On Thursday, Sept 21, 2023, the BCC held their final budget hearing. Funding for Conservation Collier was proposed to be reduced and the environmental community was there in force. The LWV of Collier County has been instrumental in supporting Conservation Collier since the beginning. Conservation Collier was approved in a referendum, three times, most recently, by a 77% vote in 2020. The ballot language specified a tax levy of .25 mill for 10 years to buy and maintain conservation land. Since 2020, Conservation Collier had received full funding and was in the process of approving multiple land purchases. Members of the LWV Environmental Affairs Committee wrote letters to the Commissioners and the Naples Daily News to support full funding at .25 mill this year. At the BCC meeting, Patti Forkan, Susan Calkins, Gaylene Vasaturo, and Gary Bromley voiced support for full funding, along with over 50 others. Unfortunately, the Commissioners were not persuaded. The BCC decided on a rate of .2242 mill for Conservation Collier, providing funding of $31 million for F2024. At the same time, most of the accumulated funding for both land acquisition and future maintenance was siphoned-off for other unrelated county operating expenses with no promise to repay Conservation Collier. According to Sparker’s Soapbox, the County is not allowed under the ordinance governing Conservation Collier to use funds to pay for county operations. As a result, at the October 10 BCC meeting, the county attorney intends to present an amendment to the ordinance to allow of the use of funds for other purposes “if found to be in the best interest of the public by majority vote of the Board of County Commissioners.” |